medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Absent from the _Depositio martyrum_ of the Chronographer of 354, Mark and Marcellian are Roman martyrs whose celebration on this day is recorded in the seventh-century Roman lists of martyrial resting places, in the Gelasian and Gregorian sacramentaries, in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, and in the historical martyrologies from at least Florus of Lyon onward. The location of their sepulture is problematic. According to the (ps.-)HM they were buried in the cemetery of Balbina on the Via Ardeatina. The seventh-century lists of resting places say that theirs lay beneath the church in which pope St. Damasus was buried and at some remove from that in which pope St. Mark reposed. As the latter is known to have been in the cemetery of Balbina, the prevailing view is that Mark and Marcellian lay in some other cemetery in the same general vicinity. For another possible location, see the end of the next paragraph.
In the legendary Passio of St. Sebastian (BHL 7543) Mark and Marcellian are twin brothers of high rank from a prominent pagan family. Both are married. They are arrested as Christians and after refusing to sacrifice to idols are imprisoned. Their parents visit them and plead with them to relent. Encouraged by Sebastian, they persevere; their determination overcomes all entreaties and the parents are converted. So too are the martyrs' wives and some of their friends. The whole lot is baptized by the priest St. Polycarp. Mark and Marcellian are comforted by St. Sebastian and are made deacons by pope St. Gaius, who also ordains their father priest. The brothers suffer a painful martyrdom together and are buried at the sandpits (_ad arenas_) on the Via Appia.
Some period-pertinent images of Mark and Marcellian:
a) as twice depicted in the late twelfth-century Navarre Picture Bible from Pamplona (1197; Amiens, Bibliothèque Louis Aragon, ms. 108, fols. 218r, 218v):
1) at right, led before the judge (fol. 218r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht3/IRHT_060372-p.jpg
2) at left; at right, their father (St. Tranquillinus; fol. 218v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht3/IRHT_060374-p.jpg
b) as twice depicted by Mahiet and workshop in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of Books 9-16 of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1335; Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 5080, fols. 214v, 218v):
1) at left; at right, their mother (St. Marcia or Martia; fol. 214v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7100627v/f434.item.zoom
2) third and fourth from left; martyrdom (fol. 218v; at right, the martyrdom of St. Sebastian):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7100627v/f442.item.zoom
c) as depicted (right-hand column; showing the manner of their martyrdom) in the later fourteenth-century Breviary of Charles V (ca. 1364-1370; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 1052, fol. 393r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84525491/f795.item.zoom
d) as depicted (encouraged by Sebastian before the judges [here seemingly the emperors Diocletian and Maximian]) by Nicolò Semitecolo in a later fourteenth-century panel painting (1367) on a reconstituted altar in the Museo diocesano in Padua:
http://tinyurl.com/hb6c72c
e) as twice depicted in a later fourteenth-century copy of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1370-1380; Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 15941, fols. 80v, 83v):
1) at left; at right, their mother (St. Marcia or Martia; fol. 80v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8449688c/f168.item.zoom
2) martyrdom (83v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8449688c/f174.item.zoom
f) as depicted in the early fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (ca. 1414; Use of Paris; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 193v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_054041-p.jpg
g) as depicted (lower register at left; at right, their families; above, the martyrdom of St. Sebastian) in a mid-fifteenth-century copy of Giovanni Colonna's _Mare historiarum_ (betw. 1447 and 1455; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 4915, fol. 245r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000905v/f559.item.zoom
h) as twice depicted in a later fifteenth-century copy of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1463; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 51, fols. 46r, 49v):
1) at right; at left, their families (fol. 46r; at center, Sebastian)
http://tinyurl.com/2ak3brb
2) lower register; martyrdom (fol. 49v; upper register, the martyrdom of St. Sebastian)
http://tinyurl.com/2bxqkfa
i) as depicted (their baptism by Polycarp) by Giovanni Baleison in his late fifteenth-century frescoes (signed and dated, 1484) in the cappella di San Sebastiano at Celle Macra (CN) in Piedmont:
http://tinyurl.com/2q2qzx
j) as depicted (in prison) in a late fifteenth-century breviary (after 1482; Use of Rome; Clermont-Ferrand, Bibliothèque du patrimoine, ms. 69, fol. 46v) of M. and M. in prison:
http://tinyurl.com/53xgtn
k) as depicted (left margin at bottom; one brother representing both) in a woodcut in the Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century _Weltchronik_ (_Nuremberg Chronicle_; 1493) at fol. CXXIIIIv:
https://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/book/6th_age/left_page/28%20(Folio%20CXXIIIIv).pdf
l) as depicted (at right, bound; second from left, Sebastian) in the early sixteenth-century St. Sebastian Window (bay 133; 1501) in the cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul in Troyes:
http://therosewindow.com/pilot/Troyes%20cathedral/w133-EF.htm
Best,
John Dillon
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